


The Winners

by Nicky_Gabriel



Category: Riptide (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-25
Updated: 2013-08-25
Packaged: 2017-12-24 16:00:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/941849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicky_Gabriel/pseuds/Nicky_Gabriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You know how it works, just buy her flowers or something. Women love it.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Winners

  
Nick was still working on the spare engine he’d gotten last week, almost for nothing because it needed repairs when Cody leaned against Mimi and smiled at him. “You spend with her more time than with me recently,” he said teasingly.  
  
Nick looked up, surprised. He’d heard him coming, of course, and even if he hadn’t, he usually could tell where Cody was, as if he had developed some sixth sense for Cody’s whereabouts. How many times had it saved their lives in the army? But still he didn’t expect that greeting.  
  
“Sorry,” he said and sat down on the floor of the helicopter, where he was working, and decided to take a break. He felt guilty. Cody was right with his remark, but he could hardly do something about it right now, and it was slowly killing him.  
  
“’S okay.” Cody sat next to him at the entrance, leaning against the door, and sighed. “I know I wasn’t the best company recently and no help to the agency either.” He nodded toward his arm that was still in sling.  
  
“Cody, you almost drowned.” Nick shook his head. “Few months ago you were shot. You don’t really think we expect you to be 100% the next day, right?”  
  
Cody just shrugged.  
  
Nick moved closer to him. “I don’t mind when you’re a little cranky as long as you are... as long as you _are_.”  
  
“A little?” Cody raised an eyebrow.  
  
Nick noted how tired his friend looked and it seemed more than just physical exhaustion related to his recent stay in hospital.  
  
“Well, could have been worse,” Nick said, sliding closer to him.  
  
“How?” Cody asked, surprised.  
  
Nick winced and looked at his hands. “You could have been... dead.”  
  
Cody rubbed his arm. “Hey, I’m not. You saved me.”  
  
But Nick still couldn’t look at him – irritated – but the anger was directed toward himself. “Almost too late.”  
  
“Maybe.” Cody squeezed his arm tighter. “But ‘almost’ makes a difference to me.”  
  
Nick sighed and put his hand over Cody’s. “Doesn’t feel like that.”  
  
“I know, man,” Cody whispered and bowed his head, so he touched Nick’s temple with his forehead.  
  
Nick didn’t even realize how much he needed it. In the last few weeks everything was falling apart and now he’d failed Cody again, almost getting him killed. Somehow Nick didn’t think he was still worth Cody’s friendship. Nick wasn’t used to such feelings, not when the source was Cody and he just needed to make it simple again.  
  
Cody knew what to do and he did it. A simple touch and _‘I know, man’_ and everything was okay again. With Nick. Nick looked up and met his partner’s eyes. With Cody nothing was okay.  
  
“You and Joanna?” Nick asked cautiously. “Did you have a fight?”  
  
Cody moved away and leaned back against the door. “Why?” This time he was not looking at Nick.  
  
“You seem... disturbed,” Nick managed to say.  
  
“No...” Cody shook his head. “I mean... we didn’t fight.”  
  
Nick sighed. “You know how it works, just buy her flowers or something. Women love it.”  
  
Cody laughed at that, but his heart wasn’t in the laugh at all. “She’s... she’s got... she will most probably get promotion,” he said quietly.  
  
Nick blinked and frowned. “That’s great. Isn’t it?” Sometimes reading Cody still wasn’t that easy. Cody knew him too well and he knew what to do to hide his deepest feelings from Nick. Nick hated when Cody did it, but sometimes Nick was doing the same, so he didn’t fight him when it happened.  
  
“Cody?” Nick reached and put his hand under Cody’s chin, so he had to look at him.  
  
“In Seattle,” Cody added flatly.  
  
“Shit.” That was the last thing Cody needed right now. Since he and Joanna were together for real, Nick could see that his partner was finally happy. The part that always was somehow missing in his friend was suddenly _there_ and however much Nick wanted to keep things as they were before, he knew that he would have to let his friend go in the end. Yes, Nick was selfish, but Cody and Murray were the only exceptions to his selfishness. He chose Murray’s wellbeing over his own once, would he be able to choose Cody’s now?  
  
“Not the best timing, I guess,” Nick said and squeezed his hand.  
  
Cody looked up. “What do you mean?”  
  
Nick shrugged. “Don’t tell me you don’t want to go with her?”  
  
Cody shook his head. “No... yes. Nick, I’m... She pretty much said she doesn’t want me to go.”  
  
Nick froze, suddenly feeling that he didn’t understand the world anymore. “You know she didn’t mean it,” he said flatly. That hurt mercilessly to say it, but he did. Joanna meant Cody’s happiness and that meant it was the right thing to say.  
  
“I know she didn’t,” Cody admitted. “Nick, why do they always make everything so complicated?”  
  
“No idea,” Nick whispered.  
  
“I don’t want to lose her. She’s different. At least I thought she was.”  
  
Nick took a deep breath. “Did she say why?”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Why she doesn’t want you to go?”  
  
Cody looked up with a painful sigh. “Yeah, some psychobabble about leaving y...” He hesitated. “About leaving my life here.”  
  
Nick had to smile at that, because it was just what Joanna would say. “Some people are worth the try, you know?” he asked, knowing that Cody needed this assurance.  
  
“I do.” Cody looked at him hard. “And she is, if only she saw it the same way.”  
  
“You want me to talk to her?” Nick offered cautiously. He wasn’t sure he was up to that right now.  
  
“I don’ – I don’t know.” Cody met his eyes and Nick saw the answer there.  
  
*  
  
“Joanna?” Nick knocked at the door to her office.  
  
“Hey, Nick.” Joanna smiled at him and put away some file she was studying. “Come on in,” she invited him and he sat down in a chair across her desk.  
  
“Cody told me about your promotion,” Nick said, knowing she would wonder what he was doing there alone.  
  
“I didn’t accept yet.” She tilted her head and looked at him expectantly. He could see that she understood why he was there.  
  
“But you’re going to?”  
  
Joanna sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I don’t think so.”  
  
Nick saw the resolution in her eyes, but she _was_ Cody’s happiness so he had to make sure she understood that.  
  
“Cody will follow you,” he said firmly.  
  
“He would.” She nodded.  
  
Nick frowned. “So why?”  
  
“Because I love him,” Joanna sighed and looked briefly at a photo of her and Cody that was at the edge of her desk. “I love him because he is who he is and he can only be who he is here.”  
  
“Joanna, he lived in many places before he got the Riptide.”  
  
“I meant with you,” she said calmly and Nick blinked in surprise.  
  
“You two are the best friends I have ever known,” she continued. “Cody would leave me if I made him choose and I don’t think I could live with that.”  
  
Nick was looking at her, still taken aback with that reasoning. Nobody before had seen them this way and it was almost surreal to hear Joanna talking like that.  
  
“You can’t know what he would decide until you tried the alternative,” he managed to say.  
  
“Nick, have you ever hurt him?” She leaned toward him over her desk. “Purposely? Knowing that before you did it?”  
  
“No.” That was the easiest answer he ever gave anyone.  
  
“I won’t either. Leaving you would hurt Cody more than I can even imagine. For him living without you is not even an option.”  
  
Nick winced, because he knew that perfectly well. For him living without Cody was some kind of reality he wouldn’t even know the rules of anymore.  
  
“And let’s make something clear here,” Joanna was still talking. “You are not standing in the way.”  
  
“Feels exactly like that,” he had to admit. It wasn’t the first time he had somehow felt entangle in Cody’s romantic relationships and he still hadn’t figured out how to deal with it. The only thing he knew was that he had to protect Cody and that was why he was here in the first place.  
  
“I know, but let him find the answers for himself. My life isn’t only my business anymore. I have to consider Cody in my decisions and I know he feels the same way.” She reached out and squeezed his wrist firmly. “He will find a way to keep us both. Just trust him, Nick. I do. I know that he was hurt many times in the past and... he isn’t used to have people choosing him and his happiness in the end. Though, seeing you here, he should know that there will always be at least one person who’ll always choose him over themselves, no matter what.”  
  
“You are sacrificing a lot,” Nick said putting his hand on hers.  
  
Joanna just smiled. “You still don’t get it, do you? Cody would die for you and he’s proved it. He is the most caring, unselfish and loving man I have ever met. You think that giving up some promotion is a real sacrifice if I can win such a man?”  
  
Nick also smiled. “I guess not,” he said, for he had already won this man.

 

The End


End file.
